Bangladesh’s cricket team left New Zealand on Saturday, less than 24 hours after narrowly avoiding being involved in the worst mass shooting in the country, which now had to accept that sporting events were likely to have been changed for ever. The Bangladesh team were on a bus that was approaching the Al Noor mosque, where 41 people died, on the eve of the third Test at nearby Hagley Oval when the shooting began.
The Test match, which had been scheduled to start on Saturday, was cancelled after the shooting and Bangladesh’s tour abandoned. Violent crime is extremely rare in New Zealand and the Bangladesh Cricket Board said the attacks had now changed their perception about team security on tours.
“We’ll demand proper security wherever our team goes in future,” BCB president Nazmul Hassan told reporters in Dhaka. “If a country provides proper security as per our demand, then we will go otherwise not. I can say that everything will change after this incident.” Pakistan’s minister for human rights Shireen Mazari also suggested the world governing body, the International Cricket Council, should possibly take a harder line against hosting matches in New Zealand. “ICC should take note & perhaps suspend international cricket in NZ after this act of terrorism?” Mazari said on Twitter.
Pakistan has been unable to host matches at home since 2009, when gunmen attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lanka team to a match in Lahore. New Zealand have not toured Pakistan since 2002 following a suicide bombing outside their hotel in Karachi and instead played their games in the United Arab Emirates.
